U.S. patent application Ser. No. 061,244, filed June 12, 1987 entitled "Molded Case Circuit Breaker Accessory Enclosure" describes a circuit breaker and accessory which are mainly assembled together in an automated manufacturing process. The circuit breaker rating plug and the accessory units are down-loaded within recesses formed in the circuit breaker cover with little or no manual intervention. A manually accessible trip button or operator is generally provided on the top surface of a circuit breaker cover to allow the operator to trip the circuit breaker operating mechanism in order to determine whether the circuit breaker mechanism is functional. There are several existing trip button designs that rely upon the depression of the trip button or the rotation thereof to effect internal contact with the circuit breaker operating mechanism.
One example of a two-piece circuit breaker trip button is found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,671,890 entitled "Manually Operable Molded Case Circuit Breaker With Special Trip Testing Means". The trip button described therein is formed from two separate injection molded plastic pieces. The top piece consists of an externally accessible cylindrical trip button positioned within a recess formed in the circuit breaker cover above a separate angled bottom piece wherein one of the angle legs interacts with the circuit breaker trip bar while the other angle leg resiliently interacts with a stop on the circuit breaker cover to return the trip button top piece to its original position. This patent is incorporated herein for purposes of reference and should be reviewed for its teaching of the interaction of a manually operable trip button with a circuit breaker trip bar and operating mechanism.
However, the manually operable trip button disclosed within the aforementioned U.S. Patent does not readily lend itself to an automatic assembly process. The angled bottom piece is first positioned within the circuit breaker case with the circuit breaker cover removed. The cylindrical top piece is later assembled within the circuit breaker cover and requires some precise alignment to insure a proper connection between the two pieces.
Accordingly, the purpose of the instant invention is to provide a one-piece manually operable trip operator that can be down-loaded within the circuit breaker cover in a single automated assembly process.